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BRITISH WARSHIP W/ DAMAGED BOW
Battered warship carried back for repairs Battered warship HMS Nottingham has finally returned to the UK for £26 million worth of repairs. The Type-42 destroyer ran aground off Australia earlier this year. Hitching a lift on the Dutch heavy lifting ship, MV Swan, she was carried stern first into Portsmouth harbour. The 80ft-long damage to her bow section which nearly sank the £115 million warship was clearly visible. The work to repair her at Portsmouth naval base is likely to take 18 months. A Royal Navy spokesman says the ship has come into the harbour so experts can spend two days freeing her from the deck of the 32,650 tonne MV Swan. Nottingham was welded on to the deck six weeks ago when she started her journey from Sydney. After she is freed the destroyer will be taken out to deeper water of the Solent on Tuesday and the deck of MV Swan will be submerged to allow the warship to be refloated. She will then be towed into Portsmouth again stern first for repairs to begin. When the repairs by Fleet Support Services are completed she will have cost the taxpayer £208 million in building, major refit, salvage and repairs. A full board of inquiry into the circumstances of the running aground at Lord Howe Island, 200 miles off the east coast of Australia, is yet to report. 
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